***Foreword***
Dear Reader:
The next few blogs will be subtitled “Luck
Of The Irish”
- because it's me (HI! I'M CALLED PADDY!) asking 13 questions to
people that I wanted to ask them to, because I could.
I will assume that you saw what I did there, and move on.
Be warned: If I'm accidentally any sort of interviewer, it's only
because that's technically correct because I asked some questions,
not because OH MY GOD, HOW GREAT WAS ANDREW DENTON AT INTERVIEWING?
It's like he was the Mike Patton of interviewers: Creativity and
Courage is a heady mix indeed.
See what I mean? I'm no
journalist! I'm not even really a proper blogger - because a proper
blogger can keep to a schedule. :\
But me, I'm all like:
“What, sorry? That free thing that I didn't charge you for and
didn't cost you anything didn't meet your standards? Well, have a
Coke and a smile and whine more because it makes me less whiny by
comparison.”.
 |
| Except for formatting, like when Stewart pointed out that he couldn't read the tables in the 'So To Speak' Blog entry, because iPhone. THAT is just bad planning/research. Sorry, Stewie. |
Reader:
“Hey, can I ask you a question, Paddy?”
Paddy: “Sure! I'd love to ans-”
Reader: “Is there any actual interviews coming up, or are you just going to carry on for ages?”
Paddy: (SIGH) “'Yes', 'no', and you surely meant 'Are'.”
Reader: “Ummm – What?”
Paddy: “You should have said 'are there any interviews blah blah blah', because you w-”
Reader: “Are you padding this? That's padding, isn't it? You're padding this out for a word count, aren't you?”
Paddy: “Read my name, wonder how I got it. NEXT. Good day, sir/madam.”
Reader: “This is going to be another one of your stupid in-jokes, isn't it? I can tell.”
Paddy: “Sure! I'd love to ans-”
Reader: “Is there any actual interviews coming up, or are you just going to carry on for ages?”
Paddy: (SIGH) “'Yes', 'no', and you surely meant 'Are'.”
Reader: “Ummm – What?”
Paddy: “You should have said 'are there any interviews blah blah blah', because you w-”
Reader: “Are you padding this? That's padding, isn't it? You're padding this out for a word count, aren't you?”
Paddy: “Read my name, wonder how I got it. NEXT. Good day, sir/madam.”
Reader: “This is going to be another one of your stupid in-jokes, isn't it? I can tell.”
Paddy:
“I SAID GOOD DAY, SIR/MADAM.”
And without further ado - apart from this sentence - actually, I've always wondered why people say that. Why SAY it, when you could actually be getting on with it? I mean, now really.
And without further ado - apart from this sentence - actually, I've always wondered why people say that. Why SAY it, when you could actually be getting on with it? I mean, now really.
Where was I?
Oh, right – of course.
****************************************************************************************************
Our
first interviewee (because 'subject' always sounds creepy) is the inimitable
Virginia 'Jin' Wells, who is the cheery-and-playful-yet-always-professional
singer/songwriter from one of my favourite local bands of all time,
the very excellent Shygurl.
 |
Shygurl Lineup (current):
Jin Wells - Keyboard/Guitar, Vocals
Jules Palmer - Guitar (Main), backing vocals
Mat Marshall - Bass, backing vocals
Will Groom - Drums/Percussion, backing vocals
|
Jin
is the Headmistress of the Red Hot Music School, which is in the Red
Hot Music Shop in Devonport. She also works in the shop itself,
along with the guitarist from Shygurl, Julian 'Jules' Palmer (and
many other fine people, for that matter).
PROTIP: Never call
her Virginia. EVER. It's not worth it. If you do, she will punch you
in your soul. Can you even imagine that, being punched in the soul?
You can't, can you? Don't even try. Just don't ever call her that
name. Don't do it to yourself. I remember how I had a soul once,
before I called her Virginia. Then she punched my soul so hard that I
cried memories for week. That doesn't even make sense. It felt weird.
DON'T
DO IT, MAN. DON'T DO IT.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luck
Of The Irish #1:
"Soulpunching and all."
Starring Shygurl (Jin Wells)
Jin Wells: Singer, Songwriter, Soulpuncher.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1
- How
did the band initially form?
The
band formed through friends of friends and work acquaintances, and we
decided to get together and have a jam for something to do. We
started on a few covers firstly, and then I (Jin) decided to give
writing originals a try.
2
- Where
did the name come from?
The
name (Shygurl) was first brought up as a bit of a joke.
My mum
(upon meeting Jules working in the music shop) commented how pleased
she was that I was doing more with my music, as this is my first ever
band.
"She used to be such a shy girl" I believe was
the comment that sparked amusement enough to stick as a band name.
However, we decided to change the "i" to a "u" to
make it easier to distinguish!
(Author's
note: It
is indeed an awesome name, and the fact that it's all one word is a
stroke of subtle genius. And, Dear Reader, if you're going to change
the spelling of a word for a band name, never ever ever add an X, Y,
or Z. Unless you're an '80s band. And you're not. So don't.)
 |
Even The Wiggles had more sense than most '80s band, and The Wiggles work with animals and children.
But at least they aren't called 'The Wigglez'.
|
3
- Where
was your first gig?
Our
first gig was for a charity fundraiser, The Winter Solstice, a couple
of years ago. We played 2 small sets and thoroughly enjoyed the
opportunity to play for the first time live.
The Winter
Solstice has since gone on to become a massive annual event, so
perhaps some credit is due there...
(Author's
note: I
played there in 2012, and it was awesome. I don't imagine that it's
wrong at all to say that Shygurl would have been a memorable act, and
that some credit might be due to them for the success of the annual
Winter Solstice, philosophically speaking at the very least.)
 |
| Jo Green (creator of the Winter Solstice Social Event) has an excellent blog named 'Faker' which you should read. Right now. Well, finish THIS blog first. Obviously. |
4
- Would
you say that you're a live band, or a studio band?
Due
to a few shufflings of band members and other commitments, the band
is currently a studio band. We aim to change this in the future,
however.
5
- Have
you released any material so far?
Shygurl
produced a home recorded demo "Snowglobe" a couple of years
ago, and distributed it amongst friends and family.
(Author's note: That was where I first heard them.)
6
- What
challenges did you face in recording Snowglobe?
So many challenges were faced in the recording of the demo!
We
ended up putting more into it than what we had originally planned in
order to get the best result. I think overall it was difficult to
stand back and tell the differences because we had no outside
opinions. We had all our own ideas and had to come to compromises to
get the end result.
7
- Do
you have any another material due to be released?
We
currently have a mini-album on the cusp of being released. The album
will be called "Marmalade" and consists of 6 previously
unrecorded tracks, one of which, "Winters Lullaby', has been
released on YouTube. We expect to release the full album towards the
end of 2012.
(Author's
note: If
it isn't obvious, that's a link to free awesome music, that is.)
8
- What
challenges did you face in recording Marmalade, as compared to Snow
Globe?
The
recording of Marmalade went to a whole new level.
We
originally recorded everything ourselves again - but we had become
more selective the 2nd time around, I guess. In short, we ended up
getting a lot of parts re-recorded through Fatlip Studios with a
massive difference in results due to better equipment, more
experience and an outside opinion. The challenges I faced personally
included learning to do many more vocal takes than what I was used
to, being able to trust someone outside of the band with the songs,
and sometimes staying
awake
in long mixing sessions!
I need to mention that all these
challenges
were definitely worth the end
result.
(Author's note: My emphasis, not Jin's – we're coming back to this idea later on.)
 |
Looking at a picture of some cute kittens can decrease stress in any situation, and recording fantastic music is no exception. I don't know if Shygurl actually employs this particular technique.
I just really wanted to use the picture. Because LOOK AT IT.
|
9
- Who
writes the songs?
I
write all lyric content and come up with the basic chord structure of
the songs. After this I go to the band and we work on the fine tuning
of the song. We usually come up with our own parts, and [on] some of
the songs, Jules has added extra chords and bridge sections.
10
– How
do you begin your songwriting process?
As
far as the initial song writing process, I usually feel compelled to
write by a new experience linked to a strong emotion. Quite often the
lyrical content can be related to more than one experience of mine
personally, but I have also written parts of songs from inspiration
of someone else's experiences.
As far as the chord
structure/melody goes, I just sit and let it come to me. I sometimes
work out the chords first until I find something I like, other times
I have sat and written words first then worked out chords later. It
just depends on the day.
11
- Do
you prefer the songwriting process, or the recording process?
I
definitely prefer the song writing process!
There’s
something very raw and satisfying about completing the basic
structure of a song. When the band comes together to learn it for the
first time it amplifies the power of the song in ways I never expect
and it’s exciting to see where it can go.
The
end result of recording is always good but it takes so much longer
and you get sick of it pretty quickly. It's tiring, draining,
frustrating... but it's worth it.
 |
| Jin: displaying for us what should be termed the 'Thousandth Time Stare'. |
12
– What
has been your approach for marketing and creating product awareness?
As
far as our upcoming release of Marmalade goes, we've used mainly
social media and word of mouth to create awareness.
We have a
Facebook page, MySpace page, TripleJ Unearthed page, YouTube channel and I use my
own Facebook to promote also.
As the CD release gets closer, we will
more than likely pursue other avenues such as posters etc. for a CD
launch event.
13
- How
are you measuring your current success at marketing or creating
product awareness?
Basically
the best thing is that most of the internet social media sites have
their own details of how many views your songs, posts, photos have.
This is a really effective way for us to tell how many people are
seeing our music. Working in a music shop is also a really good way
of getting word around, and other musicians and friends will often
ask how the band is going merely because they are in the
shop.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That was 13 questions, and that's the Luck Of The Irish for this week.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Thanks very much to Jin and Jules for their time and input into bringing this interview to life.)
*************************************************
So,
Dear Reader – what can we learn from Jin?
Because that's why
we read interviews, isn't it? By learning more about others, we can
learn more about ourselves.
- We can learn the importance of level-headed funkiness, which is much harder to understand than it sounds.
- We can learn that art is it's own reward, and that some artists are not in it for the money.
- We can learn the value of hard work, and of getting the results of some of that hard work out there.
- We can learn that being a musician is not all fun and games.
- We can learn that art can be a chore, and we begin to understand why artistic productions are called works of art: if you're looking at the art, it's only because the artist has done the work.
Remember,
'labour' is another name for 'giving birth' - ideas
are awesome, but only effort
can bring things into existence. As an artist, you don't get paid for
having
great ideas - you get paid for implementing
them. That's what being a creator means, literally. It means that you
make stuff up from out of thin air, something that didn't exist
before you set your mind to it – you create
your work
of art.
"A
work of art is simply an idea realized; made physical."
Remember
the part where she said she was having trouble staying
awake
during the mixing sessions?
That's either because they'd been going
for hours, or because it was after work, or – more likely – for
both
of those reasons. Remember, this isn't her day job; she made a
sacrifice for her art, because she is a creative type and that's how
creative types roll.
Ideas are nice, but everyone has ideas. Everyone
has ideas, but does everyone have the skill, the time, or the energy
to make it become real?
Can you build something, based on your idea? Or
do you buy something that someone else created, instead?
The
world needs both types of people, because if nobody bought art, then
nobody could sell it, either. And that would suck, because you can
learn a lot more about a culture from looking at their art than you
ever can from asking them directly.
Which brings me nicely
to the main insight that I
gained from the interview: your
personality is always and unavoidably linked to your artworks.
When you do something, it always turns out exactly how you did it. No
matter wherever you go, there you always are. That's kinda cool.
In naming the
band 'Shygurl', Jin also accepted who she was in the past, and then
used that knowledge to create a new future for herself – a future
which featured 'being in an awesome band', and all the other things
that go along with it.
By wearing the name like a badge, she
mocks the apparently uncaring nature of the very universe itself.
 |
| The seemingly innocent face of a known universe-mocker. Seriously, look at her eyes. They're saying: "Oh, Universe, you silly thing - is THAT all you've got? You're REALLY going to bring a knife to a gunfight? Just turn around and go home before you hurt yourself, Actually, make me a sandwich first. THEN go home. You funny old universe, you. Off you go, little fellah. Run along now. And don't forget that sandwich!" |
I
like both her attitude and her music very much, and I hope my two
daughters grow up to be just like her - Soulpunching and
all.
(Liam
'Paddy' Padmore wants to tell you that Shygurl's 'Marmalade' will be
out “when it's out, probably at the end of 2012”, and you can
catch them on YouTube via the link in the blog. And he just did.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next
week: Tune in as Paddy interviews Launceston-based actor/director
David 'Q-Dog' Quinn, and gets the name of a college flashmob group
horribly horribly wrong and refuses to edit it out, because
'comedy'.SEE!
Quinnie's awesome face!
BELIEVE! You too will believe that a man
can fly!
CAPITALIZE! Words at the start of a sentence to give off
a B-Movie and/or '50s comic vibe!
Tune in to “Stardate:
AWESOME” for the interview with – wait, that's not the name of my
radio show. Wait, it's not a radio show, it's a blog.
Oh, just
WATCH THIS SPACE, dammit.
(Note
to self: create Radio Show called “Stardate: AWESOME” as soon as
possible.)
